What Are Hot Dogs Really Made Of?

After the steaks, chops, breasts, ribs, thighs, hams, tenderloins
and briskets are removed, there's a fair amount of gristle, fat
and offal remaining on a butchered animal, and early on, people
realized this could be put to good use. One of these products is
the hot dog, a classic of pre-cooked, processed meat.

Trimmings

The National Hot Dog & Sausage Council (NHDSC) notes that hot
dogs, whether regular, turkey, pork or beef, begin with
"trimmings." A purposely-vague word, trimmings come in lots of
shapes and sizes.

Pre-cooking

Because of the butchering process, the leftovers used in products
like hot dogs often have a fair amount of bacteria, and so
pre-cooking helps eliminate that. In addition, pre-cooking has
the added benefit of helping to separate the remaining muscle
meat, fat and connective tissues from the head and feet bones.
Cooking also makes the trimmings more manageable.

Because of the different sizes and types of carcasses, there are
different pre-cooking times for different animals (and different
parts), although it typically occurs within the range of 150 to
190 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hot Dog Production

Like many other products, such as bologna and liver sausage, hot
dogs and frankfurters are created by "meat emulsion," although as
the FAO notes, "meat batter" might be a more accurate
term.

Higher quality products are made from top quality meats and no
chemicals. Examples include kosher, all beef hot dogs that have
no by-products, fillers or artificial colors or flavors.

Less expensive types of hot dogs will have chemicals, fats and
water binding agents added, and for many of these, the production
process is simple:

First pork and/or beef trimmings are ground up in a machine and
then extruded through a metal sieve-like device so they resemble
ground hamburger meat. At this point, ground chicken trimmings
(if any) are added, and together, the mixture is blended
(emulsified) until it looks like the aforementioned meat batter.

Now salt, ground spices and food starches (if you made this at home, you might use
bread crumbs, flour or oatmeal) are added, along with some water
and corn syrup or another sweetener. Toward the end of the
process, more water is added, to get the batter to the proper
consistency (no one wants a dry wiener).

The batter is "pureed again [and] the excess air is vacuumed
out." Next the emulsified meat is pumped into casings
(usually cellulose but sometimes natural), and the strings of
dogs are hung on racks and fully cooked in a smoke house.
Sometimes hardwood smoke is added. Later, the dogs are showered
in cold, salted water, and then, if cellulose casings were used,
put through a peeler to remove the casings (natural casings are
left on).

Remember, "natural casings" means the intestine of an animal that
have been thoroughly cleaned and processed.

Finally, finished dogs are inspected by hand, and only "flawless"
tubed meat is routed to yet another machine where the dogs are
grouped for packing.